If You Don’t Care for Yourself, Who Will?
This is a loaded question with multiple meanings.
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Do you like yourself? Be honest.
Let’s take this a step further. Do you love yourself? This might bring up questions of conceit, arrogance, narcissism, and so on. But self-love is not any of these things. It’s about treating yourself how you would prefer that others treat you.
Many of us put ourselves last. We have family, loved ones, friends, coworkers, and sometimes even strangers that we put ahead of ourselves. This can be an amazing habit, and I know it usually makes me feel good.
But it can also be destructive. Why? Because if in the process of caring for others, you don’t care for yourself, who will?
I don’t just mean physical care for yourself, of course. Health, wellness, and wellbeing is not a singular idea. It is divided into 4 equal elements — physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Neglecting any of these can lead to dis-ease, lack, depression, illness, and other negatives.
Who lives in your head, heart, and soul? That would be you, and you alone. All actions to care for yourself — and your health, wellness, and wellbeing — begin with you.
The journey of a thousand miles…
Your health, wellness, and wellbeing will fluctuate over your lifetime. Multiple factors will impact them. These will be tangible and intangible, and further variable with time and experience.
This means something that threw you off or made you ill yesterday could empower you and make you stronger today.
I am in no way, shape, or form disregarding medical professionals of every stripe. They have training and knowledge to help us heal and be well. Most of the issues people have regarding medicine stem from crappy systems, insurance idiocy, and the greed of for-profit medicine.
But every doctor, therapist, nurse, and other practitioner of this ilk I’ve met works their best when you also put in effort.
Ceding all your power to anyone is pointless. Know why? Because nobody but you can be you. The only person that occupies your head, heart, and soul is you. Hence, when you work on caring for…
